Category Archive: Journey

Last night, after a full day of deliveries in the Cities and a sample session at Surdyk’s (as always, a great time), I returned back to the “plant” to offload the now empty coolers and tend to the cheese. Finished with my duties, I booted up my laptop and checked my email. Lo and behold, our first ever online order from a… Read More »

Memorial Day weekend is upon us, the start of a new summer dawns. The past few months have passed by quickly but not uneventfully. In March, Cedar Summit had a bumper crop of calves, and I had a “milk drought” as a result. Since then, I’ve been making more cheese than ever, as demand and new accounts continue to build… Read More »

Starting a few weeks ago, I began a string of Saturday demonstration visits. This photo shows Mari at Lund’s on Ford Parkway. That’s Kathy the cheese specialist in the background, who was kind enough to share her department with us. Of my two daughters, Mari is clearly the more demure, but she really had fun passing out samples and even suggested I… Read More »

This past Friday evening, I had the pleasure of working the Minnesota Grape Growers Association Wine Stroll inBloomington. In all, 28 wineries were represented. It’s heartening to see such amazing growth in an “industry” so similar to artisan cheesemaking; perhaps there will be a Minnesota cheese stroll one day. The night flew by. With an attendance of over 500, I… Read More »

This Monday I was invited to speak at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School in the Twin Cities. Fred Stenborg, one of the instructors, is a friend of the Minar’s. On a visit to Cedar Summit, he asked Dave and Florence if they’d like to speak to his students, and perhaps “that fledgling cheesemaker” could come along too. Alex and Mari… Read More »

I’m kind of cheating here, because it’s February 4th, though the post date says otherwise. I started an entry the other day, but after revisiting it now, decided to start from scratch. To the untrained eye it will appear I at least posted once during this long, cold, abominable month. This is my 20th winter in Minnesota. I’d like to say… Read More »

After the heavy dose of production days in November, this month is weighted mostly towardaffinage(taking care of the cheese as it ripens) and marketing. Each Friday and Saturday of December I’ve been out to one of our vendors for demonstrations, wrapping up this weekend. First was Surdyk’s and the Saint Peter Co-op, and last weekend was The Wedge and Lakewinds in… Read More »

They cancelled school today, which means, in Minnesota, there is serious weather. I was planning to go to the dairy this morning. Normally, I like to test the nasty conditions, and press on regardless, but I woke from a startling dream of the truck getting blown off the road. I’m not much for superstition, but with the winds blowing as… Read More »

What a month. My last post, over a month ago, ended, “Head down now, into ‘holiday’ mode”, and that is precisely what occurred. I made more cheese, by a fair margin, than I’ve ever made before. One week, to shoehorn family obligations into the mix, I made two large batches on subsequent days. I’ve promised somewhere along the way to… Read More »